What are the odds?

Thursday morning I was clipping Ethan’s (my youngest son) nails when the last nail clipped flew up, finding its way past my glasses and into my eye. Ouch! I put Ethan down and ran for the bathroom, trying my hardest not to blink. I gazed into the mirror and could see the nail in the corner of my left eye. I tried to clasp it with my fingers but the attempt was unsuccessful. I then try flushing my eye with contact solution (don’t ask, it was what was handy). I check my eye again, no nail, it’s gone. The good news: it didn’t stick into my retina or any other part of my eye ball. The bad news: the nail is wedged under my eye lid. To make matters worse Ethan screamed at me the whole time. He was getting hungry and wanted me to hold him. This situation added to my already high frustration level.

I call Tele-Care (a switchboard of on call RN nurses that assess your situation via telephone and recommend the best course of action). The receptionist takes my information and states within a ½ hour I will hear from one of the nurses. After 45 minutes I call my doctors office to see if my family doctor can fit me in and retrieve the nail. The secretary explains that my doctor is no longer at that office and her office is closed until March 12. She advises me to call another clinic to see if a doctor there can see me. I call the clinic recommended but they are booked completely for the day. I call back to Tele-Care to find out why no one has called yet. The receptionist explains that my phone number had been recorded incorrectly. She then transfers me to a nurse. The nurse asks me many questions, in the end, as expected I would have to go to the emergency room to have the nail removed. She advises me to shut my eyelid and cover it with something to ensure the nail doesn’t change position and scratch my retina.

After I call my husband and brief him on the situation I fold up a Kleenex and tape it too my eye. While I’m waiting for Troy to pick Ethan and me up to go to the hospital I can feel the nail moving. It feels like the nail is now in the corner of my eye. I pull off the patch and sure enough the nail is in the corner of my eye. Because I can’t clasp it with my fingers I grab my tweezers and very carefully remove the nail. I keep the nail to show everyone and tell the tale. What are the odds a finger nail could potentially cause so much trouble. I was so lucky that the nail didn’t scratch my eye or the fact it came dislodged on its own and that I didn’t have to wait countless hours in the emergency room.